The ultra-endurance Vapor Trail 125 race started at 10PM on Saturday night in Salida Colorado at an elevation of 7,000 feet. The 125 mile course spends most of its time in the mountains of the Sawatch Range, and once it hits the first singletrack, it never drops below 9,000 feet until the last 8 miles. For most of the course, the elevation varies from 9,000 to a staggering 12,600, usually averaging around 10,500 feet. When the riders are done, they will have completed around 20,000 feet of cumulative climbing. I have ridden a good deal of the trail, and it can be taxing and difficult in daylight, and would be very ugly at night with lights.

Jeff Kerkove of Team Ergon won the race in a blistering 14:26, and Kevin Thomas came in a few minutes later in 2nd place with a 14:29, and about an hour afterward was Jonathan Davis in 3rd with a 15:20. Most of the rest of the riders completed in 16-19 hours, but a few stragglers are still riding as I post this!

My local Monument Colorado compatriot Brad Baker had to bail out at Monarch Pass due to health issues (sorry Brad), and he was unfortunately joined by quite a few others in the DNF and DNS category.

Congratulations to Jeff and all the rest of the racers, and big thanks to the organizers, sponsors and volunteers!

Vapor Trail 125 – 2010 Results
Note: finish times listed are the time of day in the afternoon and evening when they finished

Brian has been part of the Mtbr team since 2007, where he has become an integral member of the review and test staff, specializing in technical articles. He likes to push the limits in all the sports he obsesses in, whether it's mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, extreme skiing, or sport climbing. He takes those same strengths and a good dose of insanity to his reviewing and writing on mountain biking products, creating technical, in-depth and hyperbolic articles. Whenever he's not on the bike, he might be found watching MotoGP racing, otherwise look for him out on extremely technical singletrack.

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